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Thirty-one people were arrested this morning after a series of police raids targeting alleged Mafia members in Montreal, Laval, Gatineau and Quebec City.

Police are currently looking for three other individuals.

Some 200 officers from a number of police forces took part in the raids, as part of Operation Clemenza led by the RCMP.

Raids follow interception of BlackBerry messages

The raids followed an extensive investigation that involved the interception of PIN-to-PIN BlackBerry messages between members of the Guiseppe De Vito and Bastone brothers Mafia cells.

Insp. Michel Arcand of the RCMP's organized crime division said an investigation between 2010 and 2012 intercepted around one million PIN-to-PIN messages, and involved what he described as a "complex analysis process."

"This is the most important interception of its kind in the context of a major investigation in North America," he said.

Both Mafia cells, described by the RCMP as "violent and active," emerged after a 2006 police operation code-named Colisée left the Montreal Mafia's leadership in disarray.